UN steps in as floods kill 200 in Sindh

ISLAMABAD: The United Nations on Monday began a drive to feed half a million people affected by torrential rains in Sindh where a second year of flooding has killed more than 200, officials said.

The crisis came just weeks after aid agency Oxfam accused the government of failing to invest in prevention measures after floods last year hit 21 million people and cost the economy $10 billion in the country's worst natural disaster.

Pakistan has now seen vast swathes of farmland inundated for a second year in the southern province of Sindh, the nation's breadbasket.

One official said the situation there was even worse than last year.

"So far, 209 people have been killed and 5.3 million affected," Zafar Qadir, head of the country's disaster management authority, told reporters.

"Around 1.7 million acres of agricultural land has also been affected by the rains and floods."

The UN food agency said Monday it had started to provide emergency supplies to the first of half a million people, following a weekend appeal from Pakistan, which already relies on billions of dollars of international aid.

World Food Programme (WFP) spokesman Amjad Jamal told AFP that the agency had provided food packages to more than 600 families in Badin, one of the worst affected districts of Sindh.

"This is the first UN food response after Pakistan's government's appeal. We will expand this program to half a million people in coming days," he said.

China said it had pledged $4.7 million for urgent humanitarian assistance and its ambassador on Monday handed over a cheque worth $50,000 to the disaster management authority.

The authority said it was working to quantify "huge" losses with cash crops such as sugar cane, banana and cotton now under water.

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011